Equitable Action in Climate Change
Professor(Dr) Jyoti K Parikh, Executive Director of (IRADe) was a Member of the former Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change – India and is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPCC authors in 2007. She served as the senior professor and Acting Director of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai 1986-2003, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria for eight years (1980-86, 76-78) and Planning Commission, as a senior energy consultant at New Delhi (1978-80).
She served as the advisor for Global Commission on Adaptation set up by U.N. Secretary-General and Gates Foundation, managed by World Resources Institute, as a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda on Decarburization of the Energy Sector and as an energy consultant to the World Bank, the U.S. Department of Energy, EEC, Brussels, and U.N. agencies such as UNIDO, FAO, UNU, and UNESCO, and as an Environment Consultant to UNDP, World Bank, and so on in addition to serving as an advisor to various ministries for the Gov. of India.
She has held national and international appointments, including the Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) for the Energy Trust Funds Programmes of World Bank, the advisory Board of Tyndall Center for Climate Change, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, 2001-2004; Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) – 1995-1998. She was on the Board of directors of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA) 2001-2004 and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), MoUD, GoI.
She has served on several International Journal editorial boards, e.g., Energy and Utilities Policy, and as a reviewer for many other journals.
She obtained her M.Sc. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964 and Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1967. She has guided 12 Ph.D. theses in energy, environment, and climate change and given lectures in more than 40 countries worldwide.
Her more than 250 research and other publications include project reports, journal papers, 25 books and monographs in areas ranging in energy and power sector, Climate change , urban resilience, environmental economics, transport and electric mobility, energy efficiency, renewable energy, demand-side management, inter-regional power trade, economical operations of power systems, power pricing, energy demand and supply modeling, technology assessment, energy access and gender etc.
Dr Kirit S. Parikh is the Chairman of Integrated Research and Action for Development, IRADe, a non profit think tank that works on policies in the areas of energy, climate change, urban issues, agriculture and poverty. He was honoured with Padma Bushan (third-highest Civilian Award) by the President of India in March 2009 and shared the Nobel Prize in 2007 given to IPCC authors. He was a Member of the Economic Advisory Councils (EAC) of five Prime Ministers of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Chandra Shekhar, V.P.Singh and Rajiv Gandhi. He was Member of Planning Commission (2004-09) in charge of Energy, Water and Perspective Planning. He was the principal architect of India’s official “Integrated Energy Policy” and also expert group report on “Low-Carbon Strategy for inclusive Growth”.
He is M.Tech. from IIT-Kharagpur, Doctor of Science in Civil Engineering from MIT, USA and also an S.M. in Economics from MIT. He has been Professor of Economics since 1967 beginning with Indian Statistical Institute in Delhi and was founder Director and Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi institute of Development Research (IGIDR). He was Leader of Food and Agriculture Programof International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) inVienna for 6 years. He has authored, co-authored and edited 30 books in the areas of planning, poverty and development, food and agriculture policies, trade modeling, energy modelling and planning, energy policy, energy economics, climate change, inclusive growth and strategies for low carbon development.
Dr Kirit S. Parikh (Chairman of IRADe)
Climate narrative from the west often ignores the equity issues and engages in debates with scientifically misplaced metrics such as rise and fall of annual emissions instead of stock of total cumulative emissions . The root cause of the problem is stock of emissions - and not the annual flow. Even the current net zero emissions narrative does not engage with the issue of equitable actions in proportion to responsibility. Payments for loss and damage to those who suffer without emitting is also a key issue. For example, the recent floods in Pakistan, which is not their doing. Yet, India has promised an ambitious clean energy transition. We discuss various features of this debate and explain India's chosen pathway.
